Wednesday 15 February 2012 12.35 EST
First published on Wednesday 15 February 2012 12.35 EST

The FTSE 100 index, which was up for most of the day, finished down 0.13%, or 7.71 points, at 5892.16. Relief that Antonis Samaras, leader of Greece's conservative New Democracy party, had signed the country's austerity pledge gave way to renewed scepticism over whether Greece can avoid a debt default. This was fed by a Reuters report that European officials are considering delaying Greece's second bailout until April, after the general election.

On the continent, Germany's Dax and France's CAC both ended the day 0.44% higher after receiving a fillip from better-than-expected GDP figures. France unexpectedly saw slight growth and Germany saw a smaller than expected contraction in the fourth quarter (while Italy declined by 0.7% and the eurozone as a whole shrank by 0.3% triggering fresh recession talk).

Banks were among the biggest risers on the FTSE after Tuesday's sharp declines, boosted by forecast-busting numbers from French bank BNP Paribas and soothing comments from China, which said it would keep investing in eurozone debt. Barclays added 6.75p, or 2.9%, to 241.6p. HSBC, which said it would beef up its presence in China, gained 14.4p, or 2.6%, to 575.9p and Standard Chartered rose 35p, or 2.2%, to £16.20.

Defensive stocks were in the red, led by pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca, which closed down 119.5p, nearly 4%, at £28.98. Fellow drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline dropped 19p, or 1.3%, to £14.21. The pharma companies, along with oil groups BP and Royal Dutch Shell, have all gone ex-dividend - which means it's now too late to go on the share register for the next dividend. BP shed 7.4p, or 1.5%, to 487.4p, while Shell was down 30.5p, or 1.3%, at £23.01.

Miner Anglo-American, the second-largest faller, was dragged down by a broker downgrade, falling 82p, almost 3%, to £26.90. Citigroup cut its rating to "neutral", and moved to a bearish stance on the wider sector on a 3-6 month view.

European broadcasters suffered, with Britain's ITV dropping 1.2p, or 1.5%, to 77.3p, as Deutsche Bank became more pessimistic about the sector in a review, citing a turn in the cycle.

Deutsche said:

The lesson of prior cycles is to own the broadcaster stocks in the early phase of any market rally. Thereafter underperformance sets in and these are not stocks to own through the cycle.

On the FTSE 250, Sports Direct shone after reporting strong third-quarter results and hinting that it could reinstate its dividend at the end of the year. The shares rose 15.2p, or 5.8%, to 278p.